Lá na gClub

Saturday night 9th May will kick start the celebrations of Lá na gClub with Member’s night in the social club andKaraoke competition to find out once and for all who the best club singer is taking part so far and represnting Seniors/2nds is Gregory McCartan, Colm Og Crilly, Danny Cassidy.
Seniors/2nds:

1mile: Damian McGrady, Barry Travers, Donagh Steele.
100m: Stephen Trainor, Cathal Crilly, Aidan Brogan.
Long Kick: Danny Cassidy, Gregory McCartan, Rory McArdle, Aidan Burns, Fintan McGreevy
Ladies:
Karaoke: Lisa Owens, Leanne Owens, Nina Cairns.
1mile: Aine Keary, Noeleen O’Higgins, Andrea McClean.
100m: Aine Keary, Joanne Sloan, Lisa Morgan.
Long Kick: Aine Keown, Lisa Morgan, Mairead Hardy, Lisa Owens, Catherine Keown.

Sunday 10th May has been set aside by the GAA as Lá na gClub as part of the associations 125 celebrations. On this day every GAA club in the world has been asked to use their premises for the enjoyment of their members in a non competitive and inclusive way.

We intend to mark this day in both a enjoyable and memorable way and we have organised a whole range of sporting and social events that we hope will interest all our members and all age groups. These will include Adult 5 a-side games in hurling, camogie, Gaelic football men’s and ladies; Poc Fada, kick Fada and Free taking. There will also be some athletics including fastest half mile and the fastest 1 mile. On the social side Saturday 9th May has been set aside for a member’s night in the social club with a karaoke competition between all the Club adult teams that will decide once and for all who the best team singer is never mind who the best team player is. Special one-off club traing tops with the 125 loggo will be presented to the winners of this and every other adilt event held over the week-end.

There is also a primary school poetry and painting competition involving the 4 primary schools in the parish with winning entries will be displayed in the social club and each winner presented with special 125 year memorial medals. It was also planned to have primary school blitz competitions but this is now been held on Friday 24th April as part of the Schools 125 Celebrations.

The highlight of the Club festivities will take place on Sunday at 1.00pm with the naming of the stand in St Malachy’s Park ‘Ardán Phádraig De Rís’ in memory of our great hero, Pat Rice, with keynote speech delivered by his old friend Dr Maurice Hayes who was Secretary of the County Board from 1956 to 1964 and one of the pioneers of that most successful era in Down football. The ceremony will include unveiling of a memorial plaque and afterwards light refreshments will be available and there will be a display of Pat Rice memorabilia in the clubrooms. Personal invitations will be issued to all current club members and former team mates of big Pat (RIP) both Club and County and if you played in any team with Pat please come along for the dedication ceremony as we will not have addresses of everyone and as his football career spanned so many decades we are sure to miss out on some. In any case everyone is more than welcome to come along.


The final event of the day will be an exhibition rounders game. And with St Malachy’s GAC renowned throughout the country on welcoming the stranger into their fold this game will feature the Club ‘Natives’ (baptised in this parish and yes that does include the Fin) versus the Club ‘blow ins'(not baptised in this parish – a few surprises await on who will appear on this team !)

Any Club Member interested in playing for either team should contact Cillian or Brian Doc as there is already a scramble for places with the ‘blow-ins’ inundated with applications. Officials for the competition are as follows

Referees: Brian Dougherty, Cillian Keaveney.
Chief Umpire: Paddy Mullan.
Base Umpires: Charlie Harper, Mickey Keown, Dessie Devlin.
Commentator/Stadium Announcer: Rory McCabe
Stadium Tunes: DJ Magiggs
Cheerleaders: Sugar & Spice

Check out rounders rules here.

This is a fun competition in what we hope will be a fun packed day for all the family and there will of course be the obligatory Burger and refreshment stall manned by a number of blow-in and ‘native’ committee personnel